It’s official. I sold my first copy of To Inherit a Murderer.  My thanks to the buyer, whoever they are. I hope you enjoy it.

E. J.

Well, much as I don’t particularly care for the title “independent author,” I’m tired of playing blind man’s bluff with literary agents.  A look at publishers accepting unagented manuscript submissions and queries shows that I would be spending about 2 years waiting around for an answer for them, too.  After a couple of high end agents read the book and said, “clean, excellent plot, excellent characters, but I just don’t know how to market this,” I’m done.  If it’s that good, and it’s a break-out book, what’s the problem?  I’ll tell you the problem. It isn’t something that would appeal to Twilight-swooning teens.  

So I’m done.  I’ve quit the game.  No more Blind Man’s Bluff with literary agents anymore.  Now I’ll simply write and publish, write and publish. 

I’m also pretty much done with magazine submissions of short stories, as well.  The only reason I write a short story is when one “pops” into existence on its own, so to speak — the creative Muse dictates, in other words.  Submitting them, though, is always a pain…because it requires I steal time away from other things…like novel writing.

I’m tired of all of it. I’m just not interested in literary blind man’s bluff with me the blinded and them twittering as they evade me finding “the right niche:, be that an agent or publishing venture.  You want to read me, come and get it.  My stories and novels will be availabe through The Deepening, from me here, or from various other websites around the Net.  

If you want it from the library or a book store, ask at the desk.  If you want it from Amazon.com, you’ll have to wait till the hard copy releases.

To Inherit a Murderer by E. J. Ruek

…Is out in electronic formats suitable for Sony Reader, Kindle, Mobi-pocket, iPhone, epub and other electronic formats which you can get HERE

If you want to read and review it, contact me and I’ll give you a coupon for a free copy.

What’s it about?

Willed custody of her best friend’s son, Deborah Rheinhart suspects the twelve-year-old is a murderer…and he is.

At seven, William killed his mother’s dog. At ten, he stabbed his father with a letter opener.  There’s the murder of the family maid.

Deborah finds that she’s brought home a boy who is driven by hatred and rage. Injured by him the very first day, William threatens Deborah’s carefully secured life. Finding a knife stuck in her bedroom door, waking to William standing over her when he’s supposed to be locked in his room, she’s is pushed to the brink of hysteria as both she and the boy’s hired chaperones suffer increasingly disturbing incidents.

Straddling North Idaho ranch life and the prestigious world of Grand Prix show jumping, To Inherit a Murderer by E. J. Ruek is the story of a woman who must learn to love and listen, regardless how evil-seeming the child within her care.  It is a story about earning respect and admiration by actions, which Deborah achieves, despite herself.  William believes in her as he has never believed in anyone.  But when Deborah lets her guard down and begins to believe in William, death answers.

To Inherit a Murderer will also soon be released in audio, too. Keep an eye out both here and on The Deepening.

Someone proudly announced their short story publication along with the periodical and a link to read.  Dutifully, I clicked.  And began to read. And quickly became bored.  I shook off my boredom, chiding myself.  ”Give it a chance,” I muttered, and forced my eyes onward even as my brain tried balking.

I made it into Part III.  Then, having had a full-scale revolt of both brain and eyes, I scrolled to the end to check the punchline…which I knew this story would have to have.

It did.

And it was too predictable.

As I’m chalking off yet another online magazine’s editorial staff as “punk,” my eyes are desperately seeking some place to input their resentment at having had to absorb what they did.  …But there is no feedback on this particular zine.  You can’t leave comments and feedback for author and editors.  

I suppose I could email, I thought.  …No.  Waste of effort.  They’re not interested in what I think of their poor choice.

As I close out that window, the original window comes into view, the one with the author proudly, even earnestly proclaiming the publication of her story.  I sigh and close that window, too, thankful that I don’t know this writer, thankful she doesn’t know me. I don’t have to worry about her expectations that I’ll leave a positive comment…any comment, at all.

I just read a very atrocious excerpt from someone’s hysterical…er…historical manuscript, a story destined for self-publishing. With these kinds of works moving through the self-published ranks, I dare say more and more people who number themselves fiction readers will have the same abhorrence to a self-published or “indie author” work as do professionals in publishing.

There really has to be a way to sift out the dross (‘dross’ means worthless material that should be removed). There really does.

Help. We’re drowning in sewage.

There are several discussions (and fights) going on across various writer’s venues around the Net concerning self-publishing verses traditional publishing. I’m afraid, I’m one of those who desires the traditional publisher, mainly because I cannot see where self-publishing isn’t just a way to keep me busy doing everything except writing.

Now, it is true that traditional publishing requires a lot of marketing effort from the author. Compared to the work a self-publishing author has to do, though, it is relatively painless.

It seems to me that self-publishing requires way, way too much effort and time devoted. A self-published author not only has to write the book, but s/he also has to:
1) create the book (typesetting, cover art and design, etc.)
2) create or contract for creation of the promotional materials,
3) place the promotional materials,
4) negotiate openings for marketing the book.

Only then can the author take advantage of those marketing opportunities, doing the interviews and appearances that will hopefully sell the books.

Then we come to the distribution and bean counting, all basically on the author’s shoulders, as well. It takes effort to even get your book listed in Amazon, or on B&N, never mind onto the shelves of chain and independent bookstores.

The established big publisher already has a means to create the book package and promo materials, has a good reputation among the media that matters, owns all the gateways to getting the book into distribution chains as well as coordinating marketing opportunities with the book’s release. All the author has to do is help, and then show up and do a good job presenting themselves in a charismatic way to the audience.

The very thought of having to write letters or make phone calls, much less do walk-in sales pitches designed to convince a radio station, a book store, or even local television to feature a self-published author and their book is summarily unattractive to me. This is the work of a publicist.

So the author who self-publishes wears all the hats normally worn by a team of people, normally paid experts in their fields who are very good at their jobs. I can’t possibly do the same kind of justice to those jobs, and the time required is at least as much it took to write the book in the first place.

Then there’s the income problem. If all I’m going to sell is a couple thousand copies of this book as a self-published author, the time and money laid out to publish and market, then distribute the book just isn’t going to give me a return worth sneezing at. In fact, it is probably going to cost me money.

So, nope. I don’t think self-publishing fiction is a good investment, unless I’ve already got an audience and a production and promotion team at hand.

That said, I can say that what I will do is allow The Deepening to record the audio of any book I write that doesn’t net me an agent and, ultimately, a publisher after submitting it for a year or two. If I can develop an audience for that book, then, I’ve got more ammunition to convince someone to take a hard look at that book as well as my other work — someone who counts in the real world of literature, that is, agents, editors, and big publishing.

An argument concerning Christianity and cannibalism sparked me to do a bit of quick online research.  Imagine my amazement to find THIS:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1080256/Cannibal-cult-mother-skinned-son-eat-flesh-gets-9-years-jail.html?ITO=1490

I am utterly shocked and disgusted.

A look at the Grail Movement’s website and a reference in wikipedia are also very suggestive that, yes, there is cannibalism and torture condoned by some Christian cults. 

To do this to children….  To abuse the elderly.  Like I said, disgusting.

Let’s see, HarperCollins is closing Bowens Press, folding Collins division, folding the imprints into Morrow and HarperCollins. This is the latest in a whole roster of reductions in the publishing world. At this rate, we’re not going to have a whole lot left in the way of substantial publishers and imprints. We’ll be narrowed down to reading Binky, Grisham, King, Koontz, and a handful of other “popular” authors, most whose work I consider unpalatable, even worthless.

Of course, the indie authors are simply giddy with themselves, because they somehow think that this proves their formula as exceptional. Well, it doesn’t. The majority of indie published work is a waste of time and resources (read trees). There isn’t a good process out there to weed the good, professional work out from the drivel. I sincerely hope that Dawn over at The Deepening or somebody somewhere can come up with some workable way to wade through the dross so that we who enjoy reading don’t wind up reduced to rereading what’s on our shelves.

I can see that, in the real world, libraries might be able to fulfill a quality control function. But libraries are suffering, too, and a lot of them are just turning themselves into Internet cafes and DVD outlets.

Sigh.

This was all done with stills, some 3000 of them. Cool!

There are teapots, there are cooking pots, there are flower pots and then there’s the pot in a poker game.  What all these things have in common is that they hold things for a time.  Teapots, though, are especially representative of a writer.  Inside the writer is a similar repository.  And it acts in a very similar fashion: it steeps.

A story seed, novel length or short, will begin to foment.  When it’s finally steeped enough, it becomes, and the writer writes the story.  Then that story gets put back into the story pot and steeps again.  When it’s ready, the writer reads the story with fresh eyes and mind and either knows it’s right or commences to adjust it.  If it’s right, it’s ready for guests to partake of it.  If it’s not, then it goes back into the story pot to steep once more, until, later, the writer again takes it out, samples it, and either deems it ready for release or in need of more adjustment. 

Of course, sometimes the story, like bad tea, just gets dumped.